Capitol Hill websites fail to make grade

CAPITOL HILL WEBSITES FAIL TO MAKE GRADE
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Jordy Yager]
The websites of many lawmakers on Capitol Hill are below par, and few are doing anything about it, according to a new report. While the Internet has dramatically changed American politics over the last decade, a “majority of [congressional] websites remain stagnant,” the report states. The so-called Gold Mouse Report, released Monday by the non-partisan Congressional Management Foundation (CMF), analyzed and ranked 618 House, Senate, committee, and leadership websites based on five major categories over three months: Clearly defining the site’s audience; tailoring the site’s information to the audience in a timely-fashion; the user-friendliness of the site; the ease and promotion of communication between user and the site; and the sites creative license while still maintaining user ease and interest. The report provided each site with a letter grade, ranging from “A” to “F.” Democratic members’ websites outranked Republican sites only slightly, with 61 percent of the Democratic sites obtaining “C”s or better compared to 55 percent of GOP sites. From 2006 to 2007, the number of Democratic member sites with “C”s or higher increased by 3 percent while the number of Republican websites winning “C”s or higher fell by 7 percent.
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